| OCR Text |
Show The problem of tax payments or payments in lieu of taxes on federally owned real estate has received considerable attention for a number of years. It has been the subject of detailed studies. Conclusions In general, broad benefits from water and related land resources programs will exceed losses in tax revenues. However, distribution of benefits is not uniform, and provisions of existing law governing payments to offset these losses are not uniform. Some localized disruption of the tax structure will occur from water use programs. Tax losses to State and local governments from acquisitions of property in connection with water resources devel- opment in the basin cannot equitably be ignored. To do so might impose unmerited hardships on some local governmental agencies, and would doubtless arouse resentment. Projects that primarily benefit local groups or communities should be regarded as though they were owned by the State or local governments and no payments in lieu of taxes, beyond any applicable sharing of gross income from such projects, should be made thereon. But State and local governments should be compensated to an equitable degree for tax losses on property used primarily to serve national or broad regional interests, with credit for any services rendered directly by the Federal Government or for payments made under any revenue-sharing arrangement. General legislation of national scope is now being prepared with a view to providing uniform stand- ards for payments in lieu of taxes on the various types and classes of acquired Federal properties. Such legislation should include a definite and equitable solution of this problem. 4. Effects of International Treaties in Determining Federal Responsibilities in Basin Developments The Problem Extent to which international treaties obligate participation by Federal agencies in the develop- ment of water resources of the Rio Grande Basin. The Situation The Rio Grande is an international boundary. As such, it has been the occasion for a series of treaties between the United States and Mexico. The treaty of 1848 fixed the lower main channel as the boundary; that of 1889 established the Inter- national Commission to carry out principles set out in an earlier treaty of 1884 dealing with the shifting channel of the river. Water shortages in the Juarez Valley in Mexico at the beginning of this century were alleged by the Government of Mexico to be due to excessive with- drawals by irrigators of the United States. Out of these representations came the treaty of 1906, by which the United States agreed under conditions stipulated in the treaty, to deliver annually 60,000 acre-feet of water from the Rio Grande near El Paso to Mexico. The Elephant Butte Reservoir and canalization work below the reservoir were necessary to fulfill this obligation. The 1944 Mexican Water Treaty 6 was promul- gated for the purpose, among others, of settling disputes between the two countries about the use of waters from Fort Quitman to the Gulf. The name of the existing commission was changed to the International Boundary and Water Commis- sion, United States and Mexico. The order of priorities in joint use of international water is as follows: (1) domestic and municipal uses, (2) agriculture and stock raising, (3) electric power, (4) other industrial uses, (5) navigation, (6) fish- ing and hunting, and (7) other beneficial uses. In general the waters are apportioned between the two contracting countries as follows: Each country is entitled to use the entire yield of certain of its own major Rio Grande tributaries before the water reaches the main stream, and to an equal part of all reaching or flowing in the main river. An exception is the right granted to the United States to a part of the yield of specified other rivers in Mexico which are tributary to the Rio Grande. The 1944 treaty provided for the construction of new storage dams in the main channel of the Rio Grande. Three general locations are specified, with the final location and exact number of dams to be determined through joint agreement of the two nations. Dams are to be built for the conservation, storage, and regulation of the greatest quantity of the annual flow of the river to insure continuance of present uses, and development of the greatest number of feasible projects within the limits im- posed by the water allotments. Plans and works by State and Federal Governments are required to abide by treaty stipulations. •The Treaty of February 3, 1944, between United States of America and Mexico, Treaty Series 944, 49 Stat. 1219, effective November 8, 1945. 340 |
